Creative Is Competitive

Childsplay – a community leader in providing integrated arts and learning experience for our young people – has a vested interest in what our kids will become.

Private support secured from the $3.1 million Creative is Competitive initiative will result in innovative new programming for stages and classrooms that broaden our children’s educational experiences and stimulate their ability to think critically, solve problems in inventive ways, and ultimately become the well-rounded, intellectual talent needed to ensure Arizona’s vibrant future.

Creative is Competitive will afford Childsplay with an opportunity to develop projects that are rich in contemporary content and create new opportunities to secure earned revenue – both of which are essential to the company’s growth, impact and sustainability.

Creative is Competitive Initiatives Raise the Bar For Student Achievement

Childsplay – an adept leader in providing integrated arts and learning experiences for young people – places creativity at the center of education. Firmly established as the resident theatre company at Tempe Center for the Arts and settled into its permanent – and bustling – home at the Sybil B. Harrington Campus for Imagination and Wonder in Tempe, Childsplay is well positioned to play a more outcome-oriented role in advancing the academic achievement of Arizona’syoung people.

“We are at the forefront of education reform,” says Shelley Cohn and Carol DuVal Whiteman, co-chairpersons of the initiatives. “Childsplay brings to the table a unique talent for utilizing the arts as an innovative learning tool for students and teachers alike. The results – improved literacy skills and so much more – have proven to be remarkable.”

Private support secured from the $3.1 million Creative is Competitive initiatives will result in programming for stages and classrooms that broaden our children’s educational experiences and stimulate their ability to think critically, solve problems in inventive ways, and ultimately become the well-rounded, intellectual talent needed to ensure Arizona’s future.

Four Initiatives

1. Significantly expand programs and supplemental curriculum that present relevant educational and contemporary issues on stages and in the classroom.

2. Expand and enhance the Sybil B. Harrington Campus for Imagination and Wonder to allow more young people, families and adults to participate in drama programs and classes offered on-site

3. Extend Childsplay’s reach into diverse segments of the population through advanced marketing strategies to capitalize on the social and educational impact of programs

4. Create working capital so that Childsplay can serve as its own interest-free lender during low periods in its cash flow cycle

Childsplay has been awarded a $347,000 grant from the Helios Education Foundation to support the Early Years Educators at Play program. The EYE Play program promotes literacy and language acquisition for children ages 3 to 5, and is an outgrowth of Childsplay’s U.S. Department of Education-funded Drama Frames initiative in which teaching artists trained elementary school teachers how to incorporate drama in teaching writing. The grant will allow implementation of the EYE Play program in 32 preschool classrooms across the Phoenix area. Each participating teacher will receive 18 months of drama and literacy-based professional development with Childsplay teaching artists. Using a peer-coaching model, Childsplay teaching artists will work directly with teachers in their own classrooms on a one-to-one basis to develop lesson plans and strategies.